Hiya. My love of art started when I was a wee one. My mother tells me that I was drawing people when (and perhaps before) I was two years old. Granted, my figures took the form of what I, later at age four, would disdainfully refer to as “legs from the chin.” Even in my early years, I showed a keen interest in representing people – as opposed to animals, machines or other popular subjects of children’s drawings.
I was an only child so I spent a lot of time by myself. I spent a large portion of my time in the back room, at my little table, drawing people. One time I decided to make an art museum in the basement. It was probably the most inhospitable display space ever. The light was at best dim, the air was chilly, damp and smelled of mildew, and the drawings were taped to appliances like the giant chest freezer, the water heater and furnace.
At around age eight or nine, I began to gain some small recognition for my artistic skills. In fourth grade in some sort of story contest, I won for “best cover.” When I was ten years old, I entered a “Draw Your Mother” contest sponsored by Gilmore’s department store. I ended up winning second place and a set of Revereware pots and pans for my mother. I still have one of those pans in my kitchen and I can’t seem to throw it away.
After, or perhaps during junior high I stopped drawing. This coincided with the beginning of my participation in track and cross-country running. For the next five years or so, I did no art. Then in college I started to take classes and fell in love all over again with my first and favorite activity.
Then came another artistic draught until 2007, when I decided to take classes at a local community art center. I decided to put myself through a rigorous sequence of drawing courses until my skills got to an acceptable level. I started with charcoal and drew simple objects. Then I moved on to the figure. After I got more comfortable with the figure, I added sienna, white, and black conte crayons. Within a couple months I felt enough comfort with the three hues of conte crayons that I graduated to a full palette of pastels. Eight months later I felt ready to do my first painting. This whole process took two years. Right now I am beginning to learn to paint. I am very glad that I worked for so long on drawing. It makes painting seem much easier.
